The long-range goal of this project is to understand the biological significance of visual pigments as evolutionary adaptations to the visual requirements of animals. The inheritance of visual proteins (opsins) will be studied in poeciliid fish. Fertile hybrids can be produced between parental stocks that have different visual pigments. The patterns of inheritance will be investigated in detail. The visual significance of these pigments will be tested by training experiments. Related questions concerning the relative influence of genetic background and environment over the interconversion of retinal and 3-dehydroretinal will also be investigated. Laboratory experiments will be correlated with field studies of the visual pigments of cyprinid fish. The photic environments in which these animals live will be measured and related to the biochemical findings. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Munz, F. W. and McFarland, W. N. (1975) Part I: Presumptive cone pigments extracted from tropical marine fishes. Vision Res. 15, 1045-1062. McFarland, W. N. and Munz, F. W. (1975) Part II: The photic environment of clear tropical seas during the day. Vision Res. 15, 1063-1070.